Restoring electrical power to take time in Kent County and rest of Delaware

Crews from the city of Dover and Delmarva Power must wait for the high winds caused by Hurricane Sandy to subside before they can venture out to repair power lines and restore power to those who lost it because of the historic storm.

Local residents who experienced the loss of electrical power are asked to be patient as authorities wait out high winds that remain in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

It is now unsafe for the city of Dover's electric crews to go out to restore power due to increased winds, city officials said, with apologies. Anyone who experienced a power outage is asked to report the address to 736-7086. Dispatch crews will come out to check the safety of the situation but it has become too dangerous to restore at this point.

Dover hired out-of-state contractors to help with restoring electrical power, city Director of Public Affairs & Emergency Management Coordinator Kay Dietz-Sass had said.

But the city had only a few power outages, prompting several people to praise the city's Electric Utility on Facebook.

Delmarva Power's parent company, Pepco Holdings Inc. made a similar move with regard to personnel by securing line personnel from states as far away as Texas and Mississippi, Delmarva Power officials said. As a result, all available utility crews east of the Rocky Mountains had been committed to the restoration effort on the Eastern seaboard and had arrived at Delmarva Power's staging grounds at the Fisker Plant in Wilmington and the Perdue Shorebirds stadium in Salisbury, Md.

The brunt of power outages amongst Delmarva Power customers was in New Castle County, where more than 39,000 lost power, while more than 600 lost power in Kent and nearly 2,500 lost power in Sussex.

Nonetheless, Delmarva Power would also have to be patient in the face of Mother Nature, Delmarva spokesman Nick Morici said. Namely, federal safety regulations do not allow overhead work to be performed in sustained winds of 35 miles per hour or more. Therefore, the initiation of damage assessment and restoration work would depend on when the storm passes and winds subside, he said.

"Delmarva Power has committed all its resources to Hurricane Sandy. We are actively working this storm so we can restore power as quickly and safely as possible," said Gary Stockbridge, Delmarva Power Region president. "However, based on the unprecedented damage that is expected, the restoration period is likely to extend more than a week."